Home
sign up| reviews / editor film review |
 content by: editor |
 distant voices, still lives
A masterpiece restored. A landmark of modern British cinema, Terence Davies' two-for-one (shot two years apart) impressionistic memorial to his own working-class, post-war upbringing is an astounding balancing act: both elegy to his mother's endurance and exorcism of his father's brutal regime of domestic violence; a fusion of English social realism and European arthouse; and a paean to the ecstasies of Hollywood's Golden Age musicals, whose every frame ruthlessly exposes yet still fiercely celebrates the Dream Factory's happily-ever-afters. Davies' gliding tracking shots and sepia-toned tableaux of misery are spare, but this is no still life. Charged with an urgent spiritual longing, it's true cinematic poetry from a major artist. His continuing rejection by the current UK film industry is a damning indictment of its priorities. Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), on selected release 20 April 07.
 comments
Read members' comments related to this film.
|
 |
related info
 like this? try this...the singing detective
goodbye, dragon inn
the purple rose of cairo see also
also on bbc.co.uk
film  film archive The best of cinema in the UK from 2002 to 2008. |
send to a friend
access 1000s of articles